Summary
The love lives of the gang are heating up — Buffy and Angel are growing closer, Xander and Cordy are fighting like cat and dog (only with kissing). Oz and Willow arrange a date for Buffy's surprise birthday party at the Bronze the next night. Jenny is visited by her mysterious Gypsy uncle, who warns Jenny to keep Buffy away from Angel. Dru and Spike are assembling an indestructible demon called the Judge, but Buffy manages to steal one of his arms, thus preventing his full assembly and in the process crashes her own party, quite literally. Jenny suggests that Angel take the arm to the other side of the world, but he and Buffy are ambushed by Spike's hench-vampires, and the Judge is re-awakened. The Judge has the power to kill with a single touch, and almost kills Buffy, but Angel saves her. Later that night, in Angel's mansion, Buffy and Angel consummate their relationship. Some dark magic is summoned by this, and Angel runs from his bed into the street, screaming Buffy's name in pain.
Plot
Buffy has a disturbing dream in which she sees Drusilla kill Angel. "Happy birthday, Buffy," says Dru. Shaken, Buffy goes to check on Angel in the morning, and that of course leads to kissing. And that seems to lead to a decision: Buffy confesses to Willow at school that she wants to have sex with Angel. "Wow," says Willow, who then invites Oz to the surprise party they're throwing the following night for Buffy's seventeenth birthday. Buffy tells Giles about her dream, worrying that Drusilla is still alive. And it turns out she's correct: Drusilla, with Spike burned and confined to a wheelchair, is having a party of her own, with many ornate wooden boxes being delivered to the site.
Buffy's birthday dawns bright and clear, but then at breakfast Joyce unwittingly re-enacts a part of Buffy's bad dream. Meanwhile, Ms. Calendar gets a strange visitor who reprimands her for getting so caught up in her life as "Jenny Calendar" that she has neglected her gypsy heritage and her duty to see that Angel's torment is eternal. She promises the visitor, her uncle, that she'll break Buffy and Angel up. That night she takes Buffy to the Bronze on a mysterious errand, and there they see vampires carrying ornate wooden boxes. Buffy drives them off (crashing through the Bronze window and ruining the surprise party) and carries one of the boxes inside. She opens it to find a disembodied, armor-clad arm — which leaps from the box and starts to strangle her.
Angel saves Buffy and says he knows what the arm is — it's part of the Judge, a demon whose sole purpose is to cleanse the Earth of the plague of humanity. The Judge cannot be killed, so he was dismembered and the pieces buried in remote parts of the world. Ms. Calendar suggests Angel take the arm and re-bury it, and Angel reluctantly agrees despite Buffy's protests. But as Buffy says her tearful goodbye to Angel at the docks, they are ambushed by vampires who reclaim the arm. The Judge is at last reassembled. "Just what I wanted," says Drusilla. "He's perfect!"
Buffy and Angel go to stop the Judge from being reassembled, but they are too late. They are caught by Spike and Drusilla, but they escape into the rainy night. Returning to Angel's apartment, the hellish events of the night start to catch up to the lovers. "I love you," Angel tells Buffy. "I try not to, but I can't stop." Buffy replies, "I can't either," and they kiss — which leads to more. Waking up after what is clearly a night of passion between them, Angel appears to be in pain. He stumbles outside and drops to his knees in the rain, yelling, "Buffy!!"
To be continued..
Dialogue
I'm gonna ask you to go out with me tomorrow night. And I'm kinda nervous about it, actually. It's interesting.
Oh. Well, if it helps at all, I'm gonna say yes.
Yeah, it helps. It creates a comfort zone. Do you wanna go out with me tomorrow night?
Willow, cringing and slapping her forehead: "Oh! I can't!"
Well, see, I like that you're unpredictable.
Why don't you meet me here at seven o'clock? We'll map out a strategy.
What am I supposed to do until then?
Go to classes, do your homework, have supper...
Right. Be that Buffy.
This one is full of feeling. He reads. Bring him to me." — We like this because it says that reading is at least part of what makes us human, something we firmly agree with.
Spike turns the hero cliché on its ear:
Leave her alone.
Yeah, that'll work. Now say 'pretty please'.
Take me instead of her!
Uh, you're not clear on the concept, pal. There is no 'instead'. Just first and second.